Ypsilanti residents and businesses are invited to participate in the five-day Ypsi Plastic-Free July Challenge, sponsored by Ann Arbor nonprofit ZeroWaste.Org, July 28-Aug. 1.

During the five-day event, businesses and individuals are challenged to avoid creating plastic waste of any kind. Participants will have a chance to win one of several prizes from local businesses. ZeroWaste Executive Director Samuel McMullen says many Ypsilanti residents have participated in his organization's events, and they asked that the nonprofit bring programming to the Ypsi area.

McMullen notes that Ypsi and Ann Arbor are of particular importance in the effort to curb plastic waste since a U.S. Geological Survey study found that the Huron River is a major contributor to microplastics in the Great Lakes basin.

"Figuring out what we can do in terms of plastic waste reduction is urgent and important," McMullen says.

ZeroWaste Deputy Director Lydia McMullen-Laird says that even if participants try their best, sometimes they'll accumulate a plastic straw or wrapper here and there. Any plastic waste that participants create during the challenge will be kept for a waste audit at the end of the event.

"The trash audit is an important part of it," she says. "It tells you so much about your own life and lets you do some reflection at the end about where you can start."

Participants will receive emailed ideas and support for the no-plastic challenge throughout the five days. They're also invited to visit Ypsilanti-area businesses that are already ditching single-use plastics in a variety of ways.

For instance, Growing Hope provides a coat rack full of cloth shopping bags for visitors to use if they forget their own, while Bridge Community Cafe and Hyperion Coffee offer a discount for bringing in your own mug. Depot Town Cats and Dogs and the Ypsi Food Co-op offer items in bulk, which also reduces packaging waste. Bridge Community Cafe also has a permanent clothing swap area, helping to reduce the amount of "fast fashion" that ends up in landfills, McMullen-Laird says.

ZeroWaste.orgA clothing swap area at Bridge Community Cafe in Ypsilanti is one example of how Ypsi businesses and organizations are already encouraging plastic-free living.
Event materials will offer ideas for participants to continue to reduce plastic waste in their lives even after the challenge ends. It will conclude with an opportunity to make art at SCRAP Creative Reuse in Ann Arbor with the plastic waste from each person's trash audit.

Click here for more information or to sign up for the challenge.